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GopalakrishnanDurairaj's avatar
GopalakrishnanDurairaj
Copper Contributor
Oct 30, 2025

EXCEL Crashes while opening External Data connections workbook

Hi,

We have a custom COM Add-in for Excel, and it connects to an external data connection. While opening the custom workbook, the connection was established successfully, and data was refreshed. But, Excel crashed immediately without any error message.

Checked event viewer logs and found the error below:

Using the link below, I reverted the MS Office to an earlier version (16.0.19029.20136) from the recent release on my laptop. After reverting the Excel, the issue was resolved. But I don't want to turn off MS Office automatic updates. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841#:%7E:text=Revert%20to%20the%20previous%20version%20of%20Office%201,3%20Step%203%3A%20Disable%20automatic%20updates%20for%20Office

Please suggest any other resolution to resolve the issue. Are there any known issues in the recent release (16.0.19231.20216)?

1 Reply

  • Yes, this is a known issue Excel Version 16.0.19231.20216, may consider below if automatic updates suspension is not an option:

    1.    Modify the COM Add-in behavior:
    o    If possible, delay or defer the external data connection until after the workbook is fully loaded.
    o    Consider wrapping the connection logic in error handling to catch and log exceptions before Excel crashes.
    2.    Use Office Insider or Beta Channels:
    o    Sometimes newer builds in the Insider or Beta channels contain fixes for recent regressions.
    o    You can switch to a different update channel using the Office Deployment Tool or Group Policy.

     

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